JSON Style JavaScript Class/Object declaration

[Scott Sauyet]

Dmitry A. Soshnikovwrote:

OK. So how at the end it is preferable to call "this third-party man"?
"She" for me sounds really odd yet

I'm not parsing your question, I'm afraid.

In English there is little distinction between "when the user moves
her mouse..." and "when the user moves his mouse..." Either one
sounds fine to most native speakers.

If you exclusively use "he" and "him" in these circumstances, you will
conform with what was the historic norm but will also run the risk of
offending the sensibilities of some feminists.

-- Scott

 

[Scott Sauyet]

It is possible to speak of the (or a) user, programmer, or whatever, and
then tell of their actions/behaviour without any need to imply their
gender (at least in English).

Yes, but often that involves making awkward compromises in your prose,
such as mismatching singular nouns with plural pronouns.

-- Scott

 

[Dmitry A. Soshnikov]

On 17.06.2010 3:33, Richard Cornford wrote:

It is possible to speak of the (or a) user, programmer, or whatever, and
then tell of their actions/behaviour without any need to imply their
gender (at least in English).

I see, with using always in a speech "a user" and "the user". Also, it's
a bit long and repeating the same word in a sentence (or nearest
sentences -- i.e. which go one after another) isn't so good writing (and
possibly, talking) stylistic. At least in Russian.

E.g. this is preferable (but not required and preferable in particular
cases):

"If the user do that ... But if he makes other thing, then the user...".

than that (although, this is also completely normal in Russian):

"If the user do that ... But if the user makes other thing, then the
user...".

Using always the same word sounds a bit "technically", like describing
some thing in the specification.

But to avoid political correctness stuff, yeah, I think the full "a
user"/"the user" is good also.

Dmitry.

 

[Dr J R Stockton]

In comp.lang.javascript message <d80628f8-1958-40f2-bb3f-c4e4285bb54f@w1
2g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>, Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:57:21, Scott Sauyet

But for, say,
an anonymous user of a website, either "when the user moves her
mouse..." or "when the user moves his mouse..." would be widely
accepted.

Both are silly. The ownership of the mouse is irrelevant, and the
wording should be "when the user moves the mouse...". With a little
thought a natural but neutral way of saying something can usually be
found.